of course he may have been a clueless dude in Indy and other markets and to me the money he was making just blinded him and his wife.. the move to Portugal was strategic to the extreme.

There are other concerns with this approach, but 50% down on a ready to go $150k rental in a cheaper area?

I can't speak to that myself, it's not my specialty but I think that would be one of your biggest concerns is their permit processes. 

Keeping investor money safe in this environment requires extreme amounts of investigation. 

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.The City of Detroit has 183 Neighborhoods we’ve analyzed.PM us if you’d like to discuss this logical approach in greater detail!

One of the concerns would be, how long would this last until regulations catch on?

I have not looked at apartments, but the condos I have researched have a minimum 30-day lease requirement, so be aware of that.One concern I have with short-term rentals is that they are dependent upon tourism.

Establishing a relationship with a few of them locally or nationally [if you have a network] would be extremely beneficial.

Its extremely important when running tighter margins like what you're talking about to focus on age of HVAC, water heater, appliances, roof, etc.

This can be extremely costly.We have a two step program has no waiting period at all and will end up being quite a bit cheaper then the 3 month waiting period on closing costs, rate and NO pre-payment penalty.